


the night before Christmas

by brightblackholes



Category: Shazam! (2019)
Genre: Christmas, Christmas Eve, Family Fluff, Found Family, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-27
Updated: 2019-12-27
Packaged: 2021-02-25 21:21:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,273
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21992113
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/brightblackholes/pseuds/brightblackholes
Summary: In the scuffle of arriving at a new foster home, getting superpowers, almost dying, and defeating an evil villain, Billy forgets about Christmas.Written for writer's month day 15: first time
Comments: 7
Kudos: 71
Collections: Writer's Month 2019





	the night before Christmas

**Author's Note:**

> written for writer's month day 15: first time
> 
> listen friends it's really about that found family! that's what it is!

In the scuffle of arriving at a new foster home, getting superpowers, almost dying, and defeating an evil villain, Billy forgets about Christmas.

When he first arrived at the house, Victor and Rosa asked him if there were religious practices they needed to take into account or research for him. He said no and they explained that they’re a Christian household and would love for him to participate with them, although he didn’t have to. While he was off learning how to fly and discovering the power of found family, they decorated the house and prepared for festivities. Even so, he forgets that the holiday exists until the night before, when Darla comes rushing into the room in a dress with too many sparkles and asked why he and Freddy aren’t ready for church yet.

Billy was planning on wearing what he always does, but Freddy looks at the clock, panics, and shoves Darla out of the room so he can change.

“Should I be putting on nicer pants?” Billy asks as he flutters around.

“Dude, I don’t know, just do what you want, but last year the family dressed up so if you don’t want to stick out don’t wear a t-shirt.”

Billy doesn’t have stuff much nicer than his everyday clothes, but he puts on different pants and Freddy tosses him a button up before they tumble down the stairs and into the van.

“Did you go to a Christmas service previous years, Billy?” Mary asks, twisting around to try to look at him where he’s shoved into the back seat.

“Not really,” he says. “Maybe one of the early ones, but Christmas wasn’t a big deal and I usually had pissed off the parents enough for them to leave me home.”

“Then this might be an enlightening experience for you,” Rosa says.

“The church is really pretty!” Darla says. Freddy leans over.

“It’s kind of boring, but it means a lot to Victor and Rosa so try not to fall asleep,” he says.

The church is pretty. The service is kind of boring. Billy doesn’t fall asleep, but he really likes the music and it does make him want to bow his head and pray a bit. He’s kind of on the fense about whether God will be listening, but he says thanks for everything that’s happened to him in the past few weeks. For the first time, he feels like he really has a family, and he loves them.

It goes on long enough that by the time it’s done, Victor and Rosa are shuffling Darla and Eugene off to bed.

“Santa won’t come if you’re not sleeping,” Rosa says when Darla protests. She adjusts the cookies and milk one more time before sullenly heading upstairs to her room. Rosa then turns to the remaining kids.

“You can watch one movie. Then it’s off to bed for all of you, as well.”

“ _Home Alone_!” Freddy shouts, and the four of them pile onto the couch. They keep count of how many times the thieves should feasibly be dead, and while the ending is cheesy and Kevin’s family really are jerks, Billy understands that desire to be with family at Christmas, no matter how crappy they can be. He just got lucky and landed with a good one.

Rosa and Victor chase them to bed as soon as the credits start to roll, and Billy and Freddy have only just turned off their lights when their door creaks open and Darla pokes her head in.

“Freddy? Billy?”

“Yeah?” Freddy asks.

“Do you think we can catch Santa if we’re quiet?”

Billy isn’t sure how Christmas works in this house, but if there are any presents Victor and Rosa are definitely setting them up downstairs right now. Darla cannot be allowed to catch them doing so.

“I don’t know Darla…” he says.

“Please? Mary won’t help me but I know that you two will because you’re the best brothers ever--”

“We can’t yet,” Freddy says. “Santa can tell when you’re snooping, and he won’t stop at our house at all if he knows we tried to catch him. We have to wait a bit and time it right as he’s in the house, we can’t keep watch beforehand.”

“Oh. Okay,” Darla says sadly.

“We can play some games in the meantime while we wait. Come on.”

Freddy sits down on the floor and pulls some decks of cards from under the bed. Billy gets off of his and joins them, taking out a deck and shuffling. He doesn’t get a chance to ask what they’re playing before the door creaks open and Pedro and Eugene enter, Pedro wearing a quilt like a cape.

“If Darla gets to stay up, I want to stay up, too!” Eugene says. Pedro just shrugs, so they expand the circle to fit them and Freddy slides them each a deck. He starts explaining the rules of a game Billy has never heard of but that the others seem to play quite often. He has to ask Freddy a lot of clarifying questions because he talks so fast and trips over his words. By the time he thinks he might know what’s going on, Mary has joined them as well.

They play three fast-paced rounds before Darla’s eyelids start dropping. She begs out of playing with the excuse that she wants to help Billy instead, leaning against him in a way that traps his arm and actually makes playing pretty hard. For the next round, she pillows her head in his lap and falls asleep.

Pedro starts nodding off next. He takes one of the pillows right from Freddy’s bed and falls asleep just outside their circle.

Eugene holds out longer than Billy wants him to, because he’s getting tired too and his butt hurts from sitting on the floor, but eventually he starts to nod off. It’s only noticeable because his trash talk diminishes and he slumps slightly. Once he’s asleep enough for Mary to take the cards out of his grip, the game stops.

“Now we need to get them back to their rooms,” Mary says.

“If we do that, can we snoop in the stockings? Shake some presents?” Freddy asks.

“No! You’ll be getting your presents in the morning, you can wait that long.”

Freddy rolls his eyes and heaves himself onto his bed.

“I’m not trying to move them. Darla will just want to check on Santa,” Billy says. Mary turns to Freddy.

“Don’t look at me, just let them crash here. Pull up a blanket, Mary. Darla’s going to wake us up in a few hours anyway,” he says. Then he promptly turns over and starts to snore obnoxiously.

“Freddy, come on. At least give up some of your pillows for the others,” she says. The snoring is replaced with a sigh, then Freddy flops over to relinquish two of the pillows creating a small fort on his bed. Billy lays his comforter out so they have some sort of padding on the floor, then they get pillows under Eugene and Darla’s heads. Mary grabs a pillow and more blankets from her own room and finds a spot for her on the floor. Billy climbs up onto his bed and takes a moment to survey the sleeping forms of his siblings below.

“Hey Billy,” Mary says from by the lightswitch. “Merry Christmas.”

She turns off the lights and Billy listens to the sounds of her getting settled under a blanket. Outside, snow starts to fall, and Billy thinks for the first time that he’s going to have a very merry Christmas indeed.

**Author's Note:**

> The writer's month prompts are never my best work but they gotta get done! I'm 4 months late they gotta get done!
> 
> Comments and kudos are always appreciated!


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